Contextual image presentation

ABSTRACT

There are provided contextual image presentation systems and methods. Such a system includes a hardware processor and a system memory having stored therein a contextual image generator including a data mapping module and a data visualization module. The contextual image generator receives social media data describing social media posts, determines a geographical location corresponding to at least some of the social media posts, and identifies a subject category corresponding respectively to each of the social media posts. In addition, the contextual image generator groups the social media posts into social media collections based on at least one of the subject category and the geographical location corresponding to each social media post. The contextual image generator further generates a contextual image that visually associates at least one of the social media collections with the subject category and/or the geographical location used to group that social media collection.

BACKGROUND

Social media use continues to grow as established social mediacommunities attract an ever wider membership and as new social mediacommunities arise and are embraced by early adopters. As a result, atypical social media user may access multiple social media platforms,and may engage with multiple virtual communities of friends or contactsthat only partially overlap between alternative platforms. Moreover,each platform and each virtual community provides its own stream ofcommunications, such as news feeds, status updates, commentary, and thelike, much of which may be substantively redundant between platforms.Consequently, the identification of information that is fresh, popularacross one or more virtual communities, and of genuine interest to thesocial media user, can be a burdensome and sometimes frustratingundertaking, and may detract from the pleasure of social mediaparticipation.

SUMMARY

There are provided systems and methods for contextual imagepresentation, substantially as shown in and/or described in connectionwith at least one of the figures, and as set forth more completely inthe claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a diagram of an exemplary contextual image presentationsystem, according to one implementation of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 shows another exemplary implementation of a contextual imagepresentation system;

FIG. 3 shows an exemplary system and a computer-readable non-transitorymedium including instructions for performing contextual imagepresentation, according to one implementation;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart presenting an exemplary method for use by acontextual image presentation system, according to one implementation;

FIG. 5 shows one exemplary representation of a contextual imagegenerated based on the concepts described in the present disclosure;

FIG. 6 shows another exemplary representation of a contextual imagegenerated based on the concepts described in the present disclosure; and

FIG. 7 shows yet another exemplary representation of a contextual imagegenerated based on the concepts described in the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following description contains specific information pertaining toimplementations in the present disclosure. One skilled in the art willrecognize that the present disclosure may be implemented in a mannerdifferent from that specifically discussed herein. The drawings in thepresent application and their accompanying detailed description aredirected to merely exemplary implementations. Unless noted otherwise,like or corresponding elements among the figures may be indicated bylike or corresponding reference numerals. Moreover, the drawings andillustrations in the present application are generally not to scale, andare not intended to correspond to actual relative dimensions.

As disclosed in the present application, a contextual image presentationsystem includes a contextual image generator having a data mappingmodule configured to determine geographical locations correspondingrespectively to social media posts. That determination can be based onsocial media data received by the contextual image presentation system,and describing the social media posts. In addition, the contextual imagegenerator is configured to identify one or more subject categoriescorresponding to each of the social media posts, and to group the socialmedia posts into social media collections based on the subject categoryor categories and/or the geographical location associated with eachsocial media post.

The contextual image generator also includes a data visualization moduleconfigured to generate a contextual image that visually associates oneor more of the social media collections with the respective subjectcategory or categories and/or the respective geographical location usedto group the one or more social media collections. Moreover, thecontextual image generator disclosed in the present application can beconfigured to update the contextual image based on additional socialmedia data received after generation of the contextual image, and insome implementations may be configured to perform the updatesubstantially in real-time.

FIG. 1 shows a diagram of an exemplary contextual image presentationsystem, according to one implementation. As shown in FIG. 1, contextualimage presentation system 102 is situated within communicationenvironment 100 including communication network 120, client system 130,system user 140, first social media aggregator 150, and second socialmedia aggregator 160.

Contextual image presentation system 102 includes hardware processor104, and system memory 106 storing contextual image generator 110including data mapping module 112 and data visualization module 114. Inaddition, system memory 106 is shown to include contextual image 116generated by contextual image generator 110. Also shown in FIG. 1 arenetwork communication links 122 interactively connecting client system130 and contextual image presentation system 102 via communicationnetwork 120, as well as social media data 152 and social media data 162received by contextual image presentation system 102 from respectivefirst social media aggregator 150 and second social media aggregator 160via communication network 120.

According to the implementation shown in FIG. 1, system user 140, whomay be a social media user, for example, may utilize client system 130to interact with contextual image presentation system 102 overcommunication network 120. For instance, system user 140 may receivecontextual image 116 over communication network 120, or may downloadcontextual image generator 110 to client system 130 via communicationnetwork 120. In one implementation, contextual image presentation system102 may correspond to one or more web servers, accessible over a packetnetwork such as the Internet, for example. Alternatively, contextualimage presentation system 102 may correspond to one or more serverssupporting a local area network (LAN), or included in another type oflimited distribution network.

Hardware processor 104 is configured to execute contextual imagegenerator 110 to receive social media data 152 and/or social media data162 describing social media communications posted to one or more socialmedia platforms (such social media communications hereinafter referredto as “social media posts”). Hardware processor 104 is furtherconfigured to execute contextual image generator 110 to use data mappingmodule 112 to determine a geographical location corresponding to each ofat least a subset of the social media posts described by social mediadata 152 and/or social media data 162.

Hardware processor 104 is also configured to execute contextual imagegenerator 110 to identify one or more subject categories correspondingto each of the social media posts described by social media data 152and/or social media data 162, and to group the social media posts intosocial media collections based on the subject category or categoriesand/or the geographical location associated with each social media post.In addition, hardware processor 104 is configured to execute contextualimage generator 110 to use data visualization module 114 to generatecontextual image 116 that visually associates one or more of the socialmedia collections with the respective subject category or categoriesand/or the respective geographical location used to group the socialmedia collection or collections.

In some implementations, hardware processor 104 is configured to executecontextual image generator 110 to display contextual image 116 to systemuser 140, through display features available on client system 130, forexample. In some implementations, hardware processor 104 is configuredto execute contextual image generator 110 to update or otherwise modifycontextual image 116 based on additional social media data received fromone or more of first social media aggregator 150 and second social mediaaggregator 160 after generation of contextual image 116. Moreover, insome implementations, hardware processor 104 is configured to executecontextual image generator 110 to update or modify contextual image 116based on the additional social media data received from one or more offirst social media aggregator 150 and second social media aggregator 160substantially in real-time.

It is noted that although FIG. 1 depicts contextual image 116 asresiding in system memory 106, in some implementations, contextual image116 may be copied to non-volatile storage (not shown in FIG. 1), or maybe transmitted to client system 130 via communication network 120 asmentioned above. It is further noted that although client system 130 isshown as a personal computer (PC) in FIG. 1, that representation isprovided merely as an example. In other implementations, client system130 may be a mobile communication device, such as a smartphone or tabletcomputer, for example.

Referring to FIG. 2, FIG. 2 shows a more detailed exemplaryimplementation of client system 230, which may itself be configured toperform contextual image presentation. Communication environment 200 inFIG. 2 includes client system 230 interactively connected to contextualimage presentation system 202 over network communication link 222. Asshown in FIG. 2, contextual image presentation system 202 includeshardware processor 204, and system memory 206 storing contextual imagegenerator 210 a including data mapping module 212 a and datavisualization module 214 a. As further shown in FIG. 2, client system230 includes display 232, client hardware processor 234, and clientsystem memory 236 storing contextual image generator 210 b includingdata mapping module 212 b and data visualization module 214 b. Alsoshown in FIG. 2 are contextual image 216 generated by contextual imagegenerator 210 b on client system 230.

Network communication link 222, and contextual image presentation system202 including hardware processor 204 and system memory 206 correspond ingeneral to network communication link 122, and contextual imagepresentation system 102 including hardware processor 104 and systemmemory 106, in FIG. 1. In addition, contextual image generator 210 aincluding data mapping module 212 a and data visualization module 214 a,in FIG. 2, corresponds to contextual image generator 110 including datamapping module 112 and data visualization module 114, in FIG. 1. Inother words, contextual image generator 210 a, data mapping module 212a, and data visualization module 214 a may share any of thecharacteristics attributed to corresponding contextual image generator110, data mapping module 112, and data visualization module 114 shown inFIG. 1 and described above.

Client system 230 corresponds in general to client system 130, inFIG. 1. Moreover, contextual image generator 210 b including datamapping module 212 b and data visualization module 214 b corresponds tocontextual image generator 110/210 b including data mapping module112/212 b and data visualization module 114/214 b. As a result,contextual image generator 210 b, data mapping module 212 b, and datavisualization module 214 b may share any of the characteristicsattributed to corresponding contextual image generator 110, data mappingmodule 112, and data visualization module 114 shown in FIG. 1 anddescribed above.

According to the exemplary implementation shown in FIG. 2, contextualimage generator 210 b including data mapping module 212 b and datavisualization module 214 b is located in client system memory 236,having been received from contextual image presentation system 202 vianetwork communication link 222. In one implementation, networkcommunication link 222 corresponds to transfer of contextual imagegenerator 210 b including data mapping module 212 b and datavisualization module 214 b over a packet network, for example. Oncetransferred, for instance by being downloaded over network communicationlink 222, contextual image generator 210 b including data mapping module212 b and data visualization module 214 b may be persistently stored inclient system memory 236 and may be executed locally on client system230 by client hardware processor 234.

Client hardware processor 234 may be the central processing unit (CPU)for client system 230, for example, in which role client hardwareprocessor 234 runs the operating system for client system 230 andexecutes contextual image generator 210 b. In the exemplaryimplementation of FIG. 2, a user of client system 230, such as systemuser 140, in FIG. 1, can utilize contextual image generator 210 b onclient system 230 to generate contextual image 216, which corresponds ingeneral to contextual image 116, and to display contextual image 216 ondisplay 232. Display 232 may take the form of a liquid crystal display(LCD), a light-emitting diode (LED) display, an organic light-emittingdiode (OLED) display, or another suitable display screen that performs aphysical transformation of signals to light so as to display contextualimage 216 to a system user, such as system user 140, in FIG. 1.

Moving now to FIG. 3, FIG. 3 shows an exemplary system and acomputer-readable non-transitory medium including instructions enablingperformance of contextual image presentation, according to oneimplementation. System 330 includes computer 338 having hardwareprocessor 334 and system memory 336, interactively linked to display332. Like display 232, in FIG. 2, display 332 may take the form of anLCD, LED, or OLED display, for example, configured to perform a physicaltransformation of signals to light so as to display contextual image 316to a system user. System 330 including hardware processor 334 and systemmemory 336 corresponds in general to any or all of contextual imagepresentation system 102 and client system 130, in FIG. 1, and contextualimage presentation system 202 and client system 230, in FIG. 2. Inaddition, contextual image 316 corresponds in general to contextualimage 116/216 in FIGS. 1/2.

Also shown in FIG. 3 is computer-readable non-transitory medium 318having contextual image generator 310 stored thereon. The expression“computer-readable non-transitory medium,” as used in the presentapplication, refers to any medium, excluding a carrier wave or othertransitory signal, that provides instructions to hardware processor 334of computer 338. Thus, a computer-readable non-transitory medium maycorrespond to various types of media, such as volatile media andnon-volatile media, for example. Volatile media may include dynamicmemory, such as dynamic random access memory (dynamic RAM), whilenon-volatile memory may include optical, magnetic, or electrostaticstorage devices. Common forms of computer-readable non-transitory mediainclude, for example, optical discs, RAM, programmable read-only memory(PROM), erasable PROM (EPROM), and FLASH memory.

According to the implementation shown in FIG. 3, computer-readablenon-transitory medium 318 provides contextual image generator 310 forexecution by hardware processor 334 of computer 338. Contextual imagegenerator 310, when executed by hardware processor 334, instantiates acontextual image generator corresponding to contextual image generator110/210 a/210 b, in FIGS. 1/2, and capable of performing all of theoperations attributed to those corresponding features by the presentdisclosure. For example, contextual image generator 310, when executedby hardware processor 334, is configured to generate and displaycontextual image 316 on display 332 of system 300.

The systems suitable for use as contextual image presentation systemsand discussed above by reference to FIGS. 1, 2, and 3, will be furtherdescribed below with reference to FIG. 4. FIG. 4 presents flowchart 400outlining an exemplary method for use by a contextual image presentationsystem.

Flowchart 400 begins with receiving social media data 152 and/or socialmedia data 162 describing multiple social media posts (action 471).Social media data 152 and/or social media data 162 may be received bycontextual image generator 110/210 a/210 b/310 of system102/202/230/330, executed by respective hardware processor104/204/234/334. As shown in FIG. 1, social media data 152 and/or socialmedia data 162 may be received by contextual image generator 110/210a/210 b/310 from respective first social media aggregator 150 and/orsecond social media aggregator 160, via communication network 120.

By way of example, social media data 152 and/or social media data 162may be received from respective first social media aggregator 150 and/orsecond social media aggregator in the form of data corresponding to userposts on social media platforms such as Twitter™, Facebook™, andInstagram™, among others. Social media data 152 and/or social media data162 may include information such as public user profile informationabout the social media user providing a particular post, the time zonefrom which the post originated, text contained in the post, and metadatadescribing the post and/or its attachments, such as a photo or video.

Flowchart 400 continues with determining a geographical locationcorresponding respectively to each of at least some of the social mediaposts (action 472). Determination of the geographical locationcorresponding to some or substantially all of the social media posts maybe performed by contextual image generator 110/210 a/210 b/310 of system102/202/230/330, executed by respective hardware processor104/204/234/334, and using data mapping module 112/212 a/212 b.

In some instances, social media data 152 and/or social media data 162may expressly identify a geographical location corresponding to a socialmedia post, such as its geographical point of origin. For example, thetext contained in a social media post, or Global Positioning System(GPS) data included as metadata with a photograph or video capturedusing a Smartphone and included with the social media post may enabledirect determination of the geographical point of origin of the socialmedia post. It is noted that the expression “geographical point oforigin”, as used herein, is interpreted broadly to refer to geographicallocales and regions, in addition to more specific locations or points.Thus, the geographical point of origin of a social media post may referto the immediate geographical vicinity from which the social media postoriginated, or the city, county, state, country, or national or globalregion from which the social media post originated.

In many instances, however, a geographical location corresponding to aparticular social media post may not be expressly identified by socialmedia data 152 and/or social media data 162. In those cases, hardwareprocessor 104/204/234/334 may be configured to execute contextual imagegenerator 110/210 a/210 b/310 to use data mapping module 112/212 a/212 bto determine a geographical location corresponding to the social mediapost inferentially.

For example, although failing to expressly identify a geographical pointof origin for a particular social media post, social media data 152and/or social media data 162 may include information about the time zonefrom which the social media post originated. In addition, social mediadata 152 and/or social media data 162 may include content of the socialmedia post describing an address or business name, such as a restaurantor entertainment venue. In those instances, contextual image generator110/210 a/210 b/310 may be configured to use data mapping module 112/212a/212 b to infer the geographical point of origin of the social mediapost. As a specific example, a social media post identified asoriginating from the U.S. Pacific time zone and describing Red RockCanyon and Binion's Steakhouse™ may be inferentially determined tooriginate from Las Vegas, Nev.

It is noted that in some implementations, social media data 152 and/orsocial media data 162 may not include sufficient information todetermine a geographical location corresponding to each and every socialmedia post described by social media data 152 and/or social media data162. However, in other implementations, use of inferential as well asexpress determination of geographical location may enable contextualimage generator 110/210 a/210/310 to use data mapping module 112/212a/212 b to determine a geographical location corresponding tosubstantially all of the social media post described by social mediadata 152 and/or social media data 162.

Flowchart 400 continues with identifying one or more subject categoriescorresponding respectively to each of the social media posts (action473). Identification of a subject category or subject categoriescorresponding respectively to each of the social media posts may beperformed by contextual image generator 110/210 a/210 b/310, executed byrespective hardware processor 104/204/234/334. In some implementation,for example, identification of a subject category or subject categoriescorresponding to each of the social media posts may be performed basedon the content of each of the social media posts, as described by socialmedia data 152 and/or social media data 162, for example.

Subject categories may be broad, referring, for example, to large groupsof persons, or may be narrow, referring to an individual celebrity orperson of some renown. Examples of such subject categories may includefood, politics, health, sports, and weather or climate, to name a few.For example, a social media post describing an outing to a favoritepizza restaurant might be identified as corresponding to the subjectcategories “food,” “pizza,” and “dining out.”

Flowchart 400 continues with grouping the social media posts into socialmedia collections based on subject category and/or geographical location(action 474). Grouping of the social media posts into social mediacollections based on subject category and/or geographical location maybe performed by contextual image generator 110/210 a/210 b/310, executedby respective hardware processor 104/204/234/334. As a specific example,all social media posts referring to pizza may be grouped into a socialmedia collection labeled “pizza,” while those social media postsreferring to armed conflict may be grouped into a social mediacollection labeled “war.” As another example, all social media postsoriginating from Japan and referring to origami could be grouped intosocial media collection and appropriately labeled.

Flowchart 400 continues with generating contextual image 116/216/316that visually associates one or more of the social media collectionswith its subject category and/or its geographical location (action 475).Generation of contextual image 116/216/316 can be performed bycontextual image generator 110/210 a/210 b/310, executed by respectivehardware processor 104/204/234/334, and using data visualization module114/214 a/214 b.

Referring to FIGS. 5, 6, and 7, each of FIGS. 5, 6, and 7 shows anexemplary representation of a contextual image generated based on theconcepts described in the present disclosure. FIG. 5 shows contextualimage 516 visually associating social media collections 582 a, 582 b,and 582 c with their respective subject categories. Contextual image 516corresponds in general to contextual image 116/216/316 in FIGS. 1/2/3and may share any of the characteristics attributed to thatcorresponding feature, above.

As shown in FIG. 5, social media collection 582 a is grouped based onits subject category “war” 584 a, and includes three hundred andtwenty-six (326) social media posts, each represented by an iconicvisual representation. For example, iconic visual representations 586 aand 586 b are used to depict two specific social media posts included insocial media collection 582 a. It is noted that iconic visualrepresentations 586 a and 586 b may be reduced scale public profileimages adopted by the users posting the respective social media postscorresponding to iconic visual representations 586 a and 586 b, such astheir respective Facebook™ profile pictures or cover photos, forexample.

Contextual image 516 also includes social media collection 582 b groupedbased on its subject category “peace” 584 b, and including 210 socialmedia posts, each represented by an iconic visual representation. Forexample, iconic visual representations 586 c and 586 d are used todepict two specific social media posts included in social mediacollection 582 b. Contextual image 516 further includes social mediacollection 582 c grouped based on its subject category “pizza” 584 c,and including 428 social media posts represented by iconic visualrepresentations including iconic visual representation 586 e. As isapparent from contextual image 516, more social media users are postingabout pizza then about war or peace. Continuing to FIG. 6, in someimplementations, hardware processor 104/204/234/334 may be configured toexecute contextual image generator 110/210 a/210 b/310 to generatecontextual image 616 based on how many times each social media post isshared by a community of social media users, i.e., a community of systemusers corresponding to system user 140. Contextual image 616 correspondsin general to contextual image 116/216/316/516 in FIGS. 1/2/3/5 and mayshare any of the characteristics attributed to that correspondingfeature, above. Moreover, contextual image 616 includes iconic visualrepresentations 686 f and 686 g, for example, which correspondrespectively in general to any of iconic visual representations 586 a,586 h, 586 c, 586 d, and 586 e (hereinafter “iconic visualrepresentations 586 a-586 e”), in FIG. 5. In other words, iconic visualrepresentations 686 f and 686 g may share any of the characteristicsattributed to iconic visual representations 586 a-586 e, above.

As shown in FIG. 6, all social media posts grouped into social mediacollection 682 are depicted by contextual image 616. However, the sizeor visual impact of the iconic visual representations corresponding toeach social media post varies according to the number of times thatsocial media post has been shared. For example the social media postcorresponding to iconic visual representation 686 g has been shared,such as by having been forwarded to other social media users or havingbeen reposted, for example, more often than the social media postcorresponding to iconic visual representation 686 f, despite both socialmedia posts sharing a common subject category. Furthermore, both of thesocial media posts corresponding to iconic visual representations 686 fand 686 g have been shared more often than the social media postscorresponding to the tiny iconic visual representations clustered in thecenter of contextual image 616, which may not have been shared at all.Thus contextual image 616 visually conveys the relative importance orpopularity of each of the social media posts grouped into social mediacollection 682.

Referring to FIG. 7, FIG. 7 shows contextual image 716 visuallyassociating social media posts grouped into social media collection 782having subject category “climate change” 784 with the geographicallocations from which the social media posts originate. Contextual image716 corresponds in general to contextual image 116/216/316/516/616 inFIGS. 1/2/3/5/6 and may share any of the characteristics attributed tothat corresponding feature, above. As shown by visual representations788 a, 788 b, 788 c, and 788 d, included in contextual image 716, socialmedia users in North America, South America, Europe, and Africa haveposted regarding climate change on social media.

Referring back to FIG. 4, flowchart 400 continues with displayingcontextual image 116/216/316/516/616/716 to system user 140 (action476). Display of contextual image 116/216/316/516/616/716 to system user140 can be performed by contextual image generator 110/210 a/210 b/310of system 102/202/230/330, executed by respective hardware processor104/204/234/334. For example, and as discussed above, contextual image116/216 may be displayed using display features of client system130/230, such as display 232, while contextual image 316 may bedisplayed using display 332 of system 330.

As shown in FIG. 4, flowchart 400 may conclude with updating contextualimage 116/216/316/516/616/716 based on newly received social media data(action 477). That is to say, hardware processor 104/204/234/334 may beconfigured to execute contextual image generator 110/210 a/210 b/310 toupdate contextual image 116/216/316/516/616/716 after the generation(action 476) of contextual image 116/216/316/516/616/716. Moreover, insome implementations, hardware processor 104/204/234/334 may beconfigured to execute contextual image generator 110/210 a/210 b/310 toupdate contextual image 116/216/316/516/616/716 in real-time. As aresult, contextual image 116/216/316/516/616/716 may be presented as adynamic real-time visual representation of social media posts based onthe subject matter and/or the geographical origin of those posts,thereby enhancing enjoyment of social media participation.

The contextual image presentation systems and methods disclosed in thepresent application can be utilized to enhance user enjoyment of socialmedia in many ways. For example, the present systems and methods may beutilized by a social media user to gather the user's photos from varioussocial media platforms such as Twitter™, Facebook™, Instagram™, and thelike, and display those photos collectively by topic. In addition, thepresent systems and methods may be utilized by a social media user todisplay the user's travels, for example during a vacation or businesstrip, by tracing through the history of the user's posts. Such anapproach could be used to follow a reporter as they travel around theglobe, an ambassador negotiating a peace treaty, or an average socialmedia user during their travels. The visual display enabled according tothe present solution for presenting contextual images is more compellingthan simple statistics of the trip.

The contextual image presentation systems and methods disclosed in thepresent application may be implemented so as to depict election data,viewing trends, demographics, sports information, to name a fewexamples, geographically, or according to other desirable criteria.Moreover, in addition to enhancing the enjoyment of a single socialmedia user, the systems and methods disclosed in the present applicationmay be implemented to inform and/or entertain a group or audience. Forexample, the contextual images presented using the systems and accordingto the methods disclosed herein may be presented as part of a television(TV) news or entertainment segment, or may be displayed in a kiosk aspart of a museum exhibit or theme park attraction. It is noted thatFIGS. 5, 6, and 7 of the present application, which are discussed above,present additional specific examples of contextual images generatedbased on the concepts described in the present disclosure.

From the above description it is manifest that various techniques can beused for implementing the concepts described in the present applicationwithout departing from the scope of those concepts. Moreover, while theconcepts have been described with specific reference to certainimplementations, a person of ordinary skill in the art would recognizethat changes can be made in form and detail without departing from thescope of those concepts. As such, the described implementations are tobe considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive. Itshould also be understood that the present application is not limited tothe particular implementations described herein, but manyrearrangements, modifications, and substitutions are possible withoutdeparting from the scope of the present disclosure.

What is claimed is:
 1. A contextual image presentation systemcomprising: a hardware processor and a system memory having storedtherein a contextual image generator including a data mapping module anda data visualization module; wherein the hardware processor isconfigured to execute the contextual image generator to: receive socialmedia data describing social media posts; identify a plurality ofsubject categories each corresponding respectively to at least one ofthe social media posts; group the social media posts into social mediacollections based on a respective one of the plurality of subjectcategories corresponding to each of the social media posts; generate acontextual image that visually associates at least one of the socialmedia collections with the respective one of the plurality of subjectcategories used to group the at least one of the social mediacollections, wherein the contextual image labels the respective one ofthe plurality of subject categories and uses iconic visualrepresentations each representing one of the social media posts in theat least one of the social media collections, wherein each of the iconicvisual representations is a reduced scale public profile image adoptedby a user posting a respective one of the social media posts; anddisplay the contextual image to a system user.
 2. The contextual imagepresentation system of claim 1, wherein the hardware processor isfurther configured to execute the contextual image generator to updatethe contextual image based on additional social media data receivedafter generation of the contextual image.
 3. The contextual imagepresentation system of claim 2, wherein the hardware processor isconfigured to execute the contextual image generator to update thecontextual image substantially in real-time.
 4. The contextual imagepresentation system of claim 1, wherein the hardware processor isfurther configured to execute the contextual image generator to generatethe contextual image based on how many times each social media post ofthe at least one social media collection is shared by a community ofsystem users.
 5. The contextual image presentation system of claim 1,wherein the hardware processor is configured to execute the contextualimage generator to identify the plurality of subject categoriescorresponding respectively to each of the social media posts based on acontent of each of the social media posts.
 6. A method for use by acontextual image presentation system including a hardware processor anda system memory having a contextual image generator stored therein, themethod comprising: receiving, using the hardware processor, social mediadata describing social media posts; identifying, using the hardwareprocessor, a plurality of subject categories each correspondingrespectively to at least one of the social media posts; grouping, usingthe hardware processor, the social media posts into social mediacollections based on a respective one of the plurality of subjectcategories corresponding to each of the social media posts; generating,using the hardware processor, a contextual image that visuallyassociates at least one of the social media collections with therespective one of the plurality of subject categories used to group theat least one of the social media collections, wherein the contextualimage labels the respective one of the plurality of subject categoriesand uses iconic visual representations each representing one of thesocial media posts in the at least one of the social media collections,wherein each of the iconic visual representations is a reduced scalepublic profile image adopted by a user posting a respective one of thesocial media posts; and display, using the hardware processor, thecontextual image to a system user.
 7. The method of claim 6, furthercomprising updating the contextual image, using the hardware processor,based on additional social media data received after generation of thecontextual image.
 8. The method of claim 7, wherein updating thecontextual image occurs substantially in real-time.
 9. The method ofclaim 6, wherein generating the contextual image is further based on howmany times each of the social media posts of the at least one socialmedia collection is shared by a community of system users.
 10. Themethod of claim 6, wherein identifying the plurality of subjectcategories corresponding respectively to each of the social media postsis performed based on the content of each of the social media posts. 11.The contextual image presentation system of claim 1, wherein thehardware processor is further configured to execute the contextual imagegenerator to vary a size of each of the iconic visual representationsaccording to a number of times each of the corresponding social mediaposts has been shared.
 12. The method of claim 6, further comprisingvarying a size of each of the iconic visual representations according toa number of times each of the corresponding social media posts has beenshared.
 13. The contextual image presentation system of claim 1, whereinthe hardware processor is further configured to execute the contextualimage generator to: determine a geographical location correspondingrespectively to each of at least a subset of the social media posts; andgroup the social media posts into the social media collections based onthe respective one of the plurality of subject categories and therespective geographical location corresponding to each of the socialmedia posts; wherein the contextual image visually associates the atleast one of the social media collections with the respective one of theplurality of subject categories and the respective geographical locationused to group the at least one of the social media collections.
 14. Thecontextual image presentation system of claim 13, wherein the hardwareprocessor is configured to execute the contextual image generator todetermine the geographical location corresponding respectively to eachof the at least the subset of the social media posts inferentially,based on a time zone corresponding to each of the at least the subset ofthe social media posts and another location identified in each of the atleast the subset of the social media posts.
 15. The contextual imagepresentation system of claim 1, wherein the contextual imageconcurrently associates each of the social media collections with therespective one of the plurality of subject categories, and wherein thecontextual image labels the respective one of the plurality of subjectcategories.
 16. The method of claim 6, further comprising: determining,using the hardware processor, a geographical location correspondingrespectively to each of at least a subset of the social media posts; andgrouping, using the hardware processor, the social media posts into thesocial media collections based on the respective one of the plurality ofsubject categories and the respective geographical locationcorresponding to each of the social media posts; wherein the contextualimage visually associates the at least one of the social mediacollections with the respective one of the plurality of subjectcategories and the respective geographical location used to group the atleast one of the social media collections.
 17. The method of claim 16,wherein the geographical location corresponding respectively to each ofthe at least the subset of the social media posts is determinedinferentially, based on a time zone corresponding to each of the atleast the subset of the social media posts and another locationidentified in each of the at least the subset of the social media posts.18. The method of claim 6, wherein the contextual image concurrentlyassociates a plurality of the social media collections with therespective one of the plurality of subject categories, and wherein thecontextual image labels the respective one of the plurality of subjectcategories.